A mum was left frustrated after feeling her lunch date with a friend was ruined by a child's incessant loud talking.
The mum had visited a café with a friend when another mum and her two children entered, sitting nearby them. Much to her dismay, one of the children, a girl aged "about five" spoke "loudly non-stop for the entire duration of [their] stay".
At times, the child's talking was so loud that the woman and her friend couldn't hear themselves speaking. She said "the child did not stop at all" and while the girl's mother made the "occasional 'shh' sound", for the most part, she "just stared into the middle distance".
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The mum was "really annoyed" by the situation and took to Mumsnet's ever popular Am I Being Unreasonable (AIBU) thread to gauge opinions, with a post titled "[AIBU] I know I am but this child was talking non stop for 45 minutes". She explained the situation and continued: "If we hadn't ordered food we honestly would have left earlier. The talking was not the problem really it was the shouting and screeching "MUMMY DID YOU KNOW.." constantly.
"Loud child placed her hand over the mouth of the other child when that child tried to speak and shouted over her. At one point the child asked me about my book which was on the table next to me. I answered politely and she then proceeded to bellow at me for about 5 minutes. In the end I had to stop answering her as she would not stop. Mum did not intervene. The people on the other side got up and moved to another table at one point - sadly we were too slow to do the same. We left as soon as we'd finished eating and got a coffee at another café nearby."
Expecting the wrath of fellow Mumsnet users for criticising the child, she added: "Flame away but oh my f***ing god. AIBU to be really annoyed that the parent did nothing to stop this annoying child??! And yes, I have DC [dear children]. One is very chatty and I would not have permitted this kind of loud behaviour."
The mum's post was flooded with hundreds of responses. One Mumsnet user said: "I'm in total agreement with you. The mother should have controlled her child."
What do you think, would this annoy you? Let us know in the comments section below!
Another said: "Yanbu [you are not being unreasonable]. Most kids are annoying, but loud kids with parents who manage to zone it out are the worst", while another disagreed and said: "YABU [you are being unreasonable] and I don't see why you'd post this? Just seems a bit pointless."
Another parent penned: "My DD [dear daughter] of about that age never shuts the f*** up. That's not anyone else's to deal with so yes, I make sure (to the best of my ability) that she's not annoying other people when we're out and about."
One Mumsnet user said: "I voted yanbu but I feel a bit sorry for the mother too. A child like this must present challenges." And another quipped: "I'm sorry you met my time-travelling son today. He was an early talker and hasn't paused for breath yet and he's in high school now. That poor mother - she's dead inside but still pretending to be a real, live person. I had an mri on Monday. It was lovely. I just lay still and nobody talked at me."
Another commented: "The poor mother is probably exhausted. I've been the parent of an OTT [over the top] young child and it's extremely difficult. Don't think she's not aware of the issue and nor aware of your judgement. There's only so many times you can ask a child to be quieter or to stop doing something before you lose the will to live."
And another added: "Ugh. YANBU at all - I get it, kids chatter on and they aren't the best at boundaries, but their mum should have stepped in. At the very least when her kid was talking AT you directly, though I also get salty when parents just let their kids be loud in ostensibly quiet spaces. I also get livid when adults themselves have no off-switch or volume control. I'm a bit of a Grinch! Haha!"
At the time of writing, 77% of Mumsnet users voted the mum was not being unreasonable to feel annoyed.
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